Tilly Greenway & the Secrets of the Ancient Keys book series

Into the Woods!

In many ways woods are like people. All of them are made up of essentially the same stuff, yet each one is unique. Some are bright, cheery, welcoming. Others are shy and wistful. Some are dark and brooding and bring a sense of danger with them! And, like people, I find that the better a get to know a wood the more surprises and joys it brings.

After I had sat in the sun watching the lambs for a while (see last post) I scrambled over a ditch and entered the fringes of a wood I had not been into before. Unlike most of the woods here, which are filled largely with broad-leaved trees like Beech and Oak, this one was made up mostly of Pines. As a general rule, I’m not so keen on these. They tend to be the darker, more brooding type. Fewer birds enjoy them and there is often a sense of lifelessness about them.

This one was different, perhaps because although it was mostly made of Pines, it skirts a larger piece of more open, broad-leaved woodland. All the same, you can see from the picture below that it had a slightly forlorn air about it.

It was also wild. No human had been here for a very long time. No boot or trainer had trampled its way through the undergrowth.

The only paths were those made by the delicate feet of deer and rabbit, or the padding paws of many badgers. I love these paths best of all. They have been made over the centuries by the animals who know each nuance of the land far better than I ever could.

One piece of good advice that I was given when I was a boy was that if you get lost in a wood (in daytime) follow the animal tracks. They almost always lead to water, or to another path and from there you can find your way.

As I moved further from the light of the fields into the shadows, a sense of hush filled the air and I decided to sit for a while in one of the patches of sunlight that filtered through the tree-tops.

Looking around, I was aware of many different casts of colour and light. Moss, bright green in places and dark as velvet in others. Last year’s pine needles, now dusty brown. Here and there a muddy pool. In places, whole tree trunks had fallen. They lay around me with their pale branches pointing upwards, like the ribs of great carcases stripped by time.

Sitting still is often rewarding. Nature stops noticing you. Birds and creatures start to drift closer.

A wood pigeon flew into a tree right overhead and began to call with that soft, fluting note that soothes the whole body. Busier sounds then approached as a flock of siskins made their way through the pines, feeding and chatting to each other as they came. A pair of roe-deer appeared and made their way up the steep sides the hill. They were so close that I could see the whiskers on their muzzles and the sunlight in their soft brown eyes.

Nearer to hand a single fly landed on a patch of moss.

I bent over to watch him as he clambered through the feathery strands.

A patch of low-growing plant (to me) was a high jungle to him!

Can you spot the fly?

Looking a little further away, a sliver of burgundy caught my eye, an unusual colour in the woods. I walked over to it and found myself looking down on these amazing funghi.

I’d never seen funghi coloured like these. Each one opened out like an oriental fan

Or perhaps a table for little folk to use!

This one looked more like some kind of creature from another planet..

Turning again, a paler colour drew my eye and this time found myself looking down on these wonderful white-and-olive funghi.

Definitely hats for someone of the right size…

At that moment there was a sudden whir of wings. A woodcock took off from the scrub just a few feet away, keeping low to the ground and zig-zagging as it went. It’s a rare thing to see one of these extremely timid birds and I smiled in gratitude to see the bird land a little way off and scurry out of view.

It was time to head home, but the wood had one last gift. As I reached its edge, with the green fields beckoning, a single butterfly flew into view. It was a Red Admiral.

The first butterfly of the year is always a special one and I don’t recall the last time I saw a Red Admiral this early in the season. I watched this one flitter this way and that, in and out of the patches of light, before it disappeared amongst the trees.

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4 thoughts on “Into the Woods!”

Thanks for sharing such a special moment. Your photos are wonderful. I especially like the butterfly.

Pine woods are the ones I know best. Our cottage sits near the bank of Lake WInnipeg, a huge inland sea that is so wide you cannot see the other side of it. On a clear day, you might see the top of the brewery at Gimli straight across from us with the naked eye. Surrounding this lake are pines and poplars and birch trees much like the ones you just visited. You are right that they do have a sense of wild about them. At the moment, they are all shrouded in snow and I can’t wait to get back there once it melts. 🙂

i never feel totally comfortable in pine woods. we have an area near us where we sometimes go to walk Flynt in the hope of seeing some deer. it is near an old manor house where in the victorian era the owners planted assorted pines/red woods when it was fashionable to do so and now a large area is managed woodland. i find it very upsetting for some reason as i feel it should be full of our native trees

I’m with you on this. The pine woods here were planted years ago and are all managed (although currently abandoned). They tend to be much less inhabited by wild things – and they make the soil acid for generations. It’s the same in Ireland, where the govt has flown in the face of advice and continues to plant huge swathes of pines. The old Hibernian pines are totally different, though, in Scotland (and some parts of Ireland): much more welcoming. And the pine forests of Canada are different too, because they’re natureal and not planted too close together. Perhaps it’s just a case of native trees feeling more entirely at home, so we do to? Then again, how long does something have to grow before it becomes “native”? For me, I love the broad-leaved woods best…and soon the leaves will be nudging their way into the sun! 🙂

Watchers 2017 Revised edition

The Hidden Hand

About Watchers

Described as Lord of the Rings meets Dan Brown and the X-Files, Watchers is the first book in epic fantasy series Tilly Greenway and the Secrets of the Ancient Keys

Tilly Greenway and her stepbrother Zack are plunged into an epic quest to save the world. The forces against them include an evil shadow organization, a sinister alien race and a world so busy fighting the War against Terror that it can’t see the real terror in its midst. Fighting with them are an ancient order of Guardians and a host of supposedly mythical creatures (including dragons!) who have returned to help the world in this final struggle of dark against light.

Our world…

“Our world is full of secrets. some have simply been forgotten or misplaced. Others have been deliberately hidden beneath layers of carefully – crafted deception. But the thing about secrets is that, no matter how deeply they have been buried, they cannot stay hidden forever.”

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Quotes

“We only have to look at ourselves to see that intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.
...
If aliens ever visit us,
I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."
Professor Stephen Hawking. (2010 AD)